Category: Transportation

  • The Ghosts of What Wasn’t

    A recent Economist article about dying small towns inspired me to think about Retro Futures, the failed promise of the hyperloop, and “sideshadows.” Typically, when I’ve written about retro futures, I’ve explored how old science fiction stories illuminate things happening today. This time, I’ll take a different angle. One of the problems with being a futurist…

  • No, Musk’s Behavior Isn’t Hurting Tesla

    Headlines about a new report draw the wrong conclusions about what caused Tesla’s weak sales quarter and stock decline. Whoever runs PR for Caliber, the brand reputation consultancy, deserves a raise or at least a nice bottle of Scotch. Last week, a new “In tech we trust?” report from Caliber came out that contextualizes Tesla’s reputation…

  • Dueling Intelligences

    How realistic is the idea that flesh and blood actors will soon find themselves performing alongside long-dead movie stars? Image created by DALL-E. Last time, I shared a microfiction (1,000 words or less), a short science fiction story called “The Only Living Boy,” about an actor, Tom, who is the only flesh and blood performer…

  • Elon’s Just Zis Guy, Y’know?

    What the chattering classes missed about Musk’s very busy two weeks in November. (Image created by Ideogram.ai.) There’s a recurring segment on Sesame Street called “three of these kids belong together” where the viewer’s job is to identify a fourth kid playing a different sport, not getting rained on, etc. Let’s play that game with a slice…

  • CES, Paradigm Shifts, Spandrels, and Collateral Damage

    What this week’s Consumer Electronics Show has to do with death of cursive writing in American schools, how to break down the elements of disruption, and more. I spent the week leading tours of the automotive hall at CES with my friends at StoryTech. (My favorite exhibit was the quietly transformative What3Words.) As we explored new Electric…

  • The world in April, 2023

    In 2011, my near-future science fiction novel Redcrosse came out. The action was set in 2023, which is just a few short months from now. How clear was my vision? Last week at a film festival, I was trapped in an endless concessions queue that (bonus!) doubled as an internet dead zone. After I had…

  • Musk, Trump, Twitter, and New Media Math

    It’s a good thing for the commonwealth that Elon Musk was born in South Africa; that fact bars him from seeking the U.S. presidency. Otherwise, it’s a sure bet that he’d run as a third party candidate in 2024. He’d win, too. Musk understands the media better than all but one other person. That one…

  • THIS is the kinder, gentler Uber?

    This week, the California legislature passed an important bill that could result in the reclassification of Uber and Lyft drivers as employees instead of contractors. The change might entitle drivers to minimum wage, benefits, collective bargaining, and a host of other knife-to-the-neck threats to the short-term survival of the ride-hailing companies that are, in the long term,…

  • When businesses ask the wrong question

    The question most businesses ask most frequently is “how am I doing compared to my direct competitor?” This is the wrong question, and it leaves businesses vulnerable rather than future-proof. Let’s use car ownership as a key example of a broader phenomenon. Car sales decline The transportation news making the biggest headlines over the last few…

  • Ride-Hailing’s “iPod moment”

    As I write this sentence, Lyft’s stock is worth $56.02 per share, which means that the stock has lost 41% of its value since its March 29th debut on the Nasdaq. Likewise, Uber will make its Initial Public Offering in the coming weeks, and it can expect a similarly bumpy ride as its filing has shown,…